Katy Harms

I entered the doors of Flathead Valley Community College as a 16-year-old, homeschooled student. After my first Calculus course, I became so passionate about mathematics that I decided I wanted to teach it. When I transferred to Montana Tech, I continued to study mathematics and expanded my extracurricular involvement through tutoring in the math learning center and leading supplemental instruction sessions. After completing a B.S. in Mathematics, I attended graduate school at Washington State University which allowed me to gain teaching experience and knowledge of best practices in mathematics education.

After graduating with a M.S. in Mathematics, I was hired by the engineering department at Washington State University to run a grant program funded by the National Science Foundation where I taught a course emphasizing the fundamentals of mathematics through engineering contexts and a course emphasizing study and professional skills for first-year engineering students. This program was designed to support a small cohort of 30 students each year. Getting to know these students was the best part of my job. My responsibilities were later expanded to teach the introductory engineering course for the college which included a complete curriculum overhaul and joint management of over 350 students each school year. …